METHOD OF PROVISIONING FIRMWARE IN AN OPERATING SYSTEM (OS) ABSENT SERVICES ENVIRONMENT

• US 20120124357A1
• Filed: 11/16/2010
• Published: 05/17/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 11/16/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Zimmer, Vincent J., Bailey, Abdul M., Edwards, James W., Khanna, Rahul, Tang, Di, Li, Yu Fu
• Granted Patent: US 8,607,040 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 713/2
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3203 Power management, i.e. event-based initiation of a power-saving mode
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3206 Monitoring of events, devices or parameters that trigger a change in power modality
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/61 Installation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/66 of program code stored in read-only memory [ROM]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4418 Suspend and resume; Hibernate and awake
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

Methods and apparatuses for re-instantiating a firmware environment that includes one or more firmware functions available at pre-boot time when transitioning the computing device from a first, higher power consumption state to a second, lower power consumption state. The firmware environment determines whether a cryptographic signature on a firmware volume is verified; whether hardware resources of the computing device requested by a manifest of the firmware volume are available; and whether a firmware module of the firmware volume is compatible with installed firmware of the firmware environment. If so, the firmware environment reserves space in a memory to accommodate resources used by the firmware module, and executes the firmware module with the computing device in the second, lower power consumption state.

Claims

1. A method for provisioning a firmware module to a computing device, the method comprising:

re-instantiating a firmware environment that includes one or more firmware functions available at pre-boot time, when transitioning the computing device from a first, higher power consumption state to a second, lower power consumption state;

determining, by the firmware environment, whether a cryptographic signature on a firmware volume is verified;

determining, by the firmware environment, whether hardware resources of the computing device requested by a manifest of the firmware volume are available;

determining, by the firmware environment, whether at least one firmware module of the firmware volume is compatible with installed firmware of the firmware environment;

reserving space in a memory to accommodate resources used by the at least one firmware module; and

executing the at least one firmware module with the computing device in the second, lower power consumption state.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising downloading the firmware volume to the computing device when the computing device is in the first, higher power consumption state.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the firmware volume comprises a header, a cryptographic signature covering the contents of the firmware volume, a manifest declaring hardware resources of the computing device to be used by the at least one firmware module, and the at least one firmware module.

4. The method of claim 3, where the at least one firmware module comprises binary code for one or more EFI S3 DXE IPL firmware drivers.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the firmware environment comprises a S3 DXE IPL enable flag set to false at manufacturing time of the computing device, and further comprising setting the S3 DXE IPL enable flag to true when the cryptographic signature is verified, the hardware resources are available, and the at least one firmware module is compatible.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising, upon a successive S3 resume, if the S3 DXE IPL enable flag is true, launching the S3 DXE IPL and associated firmware modules from the firmware volume prior to passing control to an operating system resume vector.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the firmware volume is provided and signed by a party other than the manufacturer of the computing device, and the firmware volume is installed to the computing device after shipment to a user.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising creating a system table entry with a status structure for returning a status value relating execution of the at least one firmware module to the operating system of the computing device.

9. A computing device comprising:

a processor;

a firmware environment configured to be operated by the processor;

wherein the firmware environment includes a plurality of firmware functions employed to boot the apparatus into an operational state consuming a first power level;

wherein the firmware environment is further configured to be re-instantiated to include at least a subset of the firmware functions employed to boot the apparatus when the apparatus transitions from the operational state to a sleep state consuming a second power level lower than the first power level, to enable the firmware environment to

determine, by the firmware environment, whether a cryptographic signature on a firmware volume is verified;

determine, by the firmware environment, whether hardware resources of the computing device requested by a manifest of the firmware volume are available;

determine, by the firmware environment, whether at least one firmware module of the firmware volume is compatible with installed firmware of the firmware environment;

reserve space in a memory to accommodate resources used by the at least one firmware module; and

execute the at least one firmware module with the computing device in the second, lower power consumption state.

10. The computing device of claim 9, wherein the processor downloads the firmware volume to the computing device when the computing device is in the first, higher power consumption state.

11. The computing device of claim 9, wherein the firmware volume comprises a header, a cryptographic signature covering the contents of the firmware volume, a manifest declaring hardware resources of the computing device to be used by the at least one firmware module, and the at least one firmware module.

12. The computing device of claim 11, wherein the at least one firmware module comprises binary code for one or more EFI S3 DXE IPL firmware drivers.

13. The computing device of claim 12, wherein the firmware environment comprises a S3 DXE IPL enable flag set to false at manufacturing time of the computing device, and wherein the firmware environment sets the S3 DXE IPL enable flag to true when the cryptographic signature is verified, the hardware resources are available, and the at least one firmware module is compatible.

14. The computing device of claim 13, wherein upon a successive S3 resume, if the S3 DXE IPL enable flag is true, the firmware environment launches the S3 DXE IPL and associated firmware modules from the firmware volume prior to passing control to an operating system resume vector.

15. The computing device of claim 9, wherein the firmware volume is provided and signed by a party other than the manufacturer of the computing device, and the firmware volume is installed to the computing device after shipment to a user.

16. The computing device of claim 9, wherein the firmware environment creates a system table entry with a status structure for returning a status value relating execution of the at least one firmware module to the operating system of the computing device.

17. A computer-readable medium comprising one or more instructions that when executed on a processor of a computing device perform one or more operations to provision a firmware module to the computing device by

re-instantiating a firmware environment that includes one or more firmware functions available at pre-boot time, when transitioning the computing device from a first, higher power consumption state to a second, lower power consumption state;

determining, by the firmware environment, whether a cryptographic signature on a firmware volume is verified;

determining, by the firmware environment, whether hardware resources of the computing device requested by a manifest of the firmware volume are available;

determining, by the firmware environment, whether at least one firmware module of the firmware volume is compatible with installed firmware of the firmware environment;

reserving space in a memory to accommodate resources used by the at least one firmware module; and

executing the at least one firmware module with the computing device in the second, lower power consumption state.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 17, further comprising instructions to download the firmware volume to the computing device when the computing device is in the first, higher power consumption state.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein the firmware volume comprises a header, a cryptographic signature covering the contents of the firmware volume, a manifest declaring hardware resources of the computing device to be used by the at least one firmware module, and the at least one firmware module.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 19, where the at least one firmware module comprises binary code for one or more EFI S3 DXE IPL firmware drivers.

21. The computer-readable medium of claim 20, wherein the firmware environment comprises a S3 DXE IPL enable flag set to false at manufacturing time of the computing device, and further comprising instructions to set the S3 DXE IPL enable flag to true when the cryptographic signature is verified, the hardware resources are available, and the at least one firmware module is compatible.

22. The computer-readable medium of claim 21, further comprising instructions to, upon a successive S3 resume, if the S3 DXE IPL enable flag is true, launch the S3 DXE IPL and associated firmware modules from the firmware volume prior to passing control to an operating system resume vector.

23. The computer-readable medium of claim 17, further comprising instructions to create a system table entry with a status structure for returning a status value relating execution of the at least one firmware module to the operating system of the computing device.